


Affection

by idola



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 20:11:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4974826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idola/pseuds/idola
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A recent accident has left Hakuryuu without his legs. But it's fine as long as he has Judar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Affection

**Author's Note:**

> in a modern au there wouldnt be any magic to bring back entire limbs, but there also wouldn't be any magic to send judar away, so this is kind of how i imagine a happy modern au would go for them
> 
> im disabled but i dont have the exact same disability so some things might be a little off

“Judar.”

Judar smiled but didn’t respond.

“Judar, is that really the fastest you can go?”

Judar gaped, and stopped to move from behind Hakuryuu to in front of him. “I was being helpful! Appreciate it!”

Hakuryuu smiled. “I appreciate it now that you’ve stopped. You were going the wrong way.” Hakuryuu pointed to the hall they’d come from. “You were supposed to go left, but you sped past it. I don’t really care if you get kicked out, but I’d rather you find the checkout in one piece.”

Judar grumbled, but turned the wheelchair to the correct direction anyway. “I’d rather get kicked out, feels like I’ve been in this hellhole all day.”

“How do you think I feel? I’ve been in here all of two weeks.”

“You’re gonna smell like hospital for the rest of your life.”

Hakuryuu sighed. “At this rate, I really might.”

Judar moved his arms from the wheelchair’s handles to around Hakuryuu’s neck. “I bet if I scrub you real hard the smell will come off fast.”

“Judar, please. This is a public place.”

“I have a hard time believing you convinced the nurses you were an innocent person for a whole two weeks. I doubt me saying anything now changes what they think of you.”

Hakuryuu wrinkled his nose as Judar pushed him into the elevator and pressed the L button that would lead them to the lobby. “I’m much more convincing than you think. They all thought I was an angel.”

“Give me your best angel face,” Judar said as he bent down over Hakuryuu to look at his face. Hakuryuu tilted his head upwards to meet Judar’s eyes, and beamed at him.

Judar immediately burst out laughing. “Wow, can still use the baby face to its full potential. Kinda amazing after all this time.”

“I do it at work all the time. Works wonders on angry customers.”

Judar hummed. “When do you have to go back to work, anyway?”

Hakuryuu shrugged. “When I feel like it. My boss will be out of town Tuesday and Wednesday if I remember correctly, so I’ll have to go in and give the part time employees work for the day if I want to come back to the store still standing.”

“Today’s Monday,” Judar said. “Doesn’t give you a lot of time to enjoy freedom.”

“Well, it’s my own decision. It’ll be less work in the end if I go in earlier than later.”

The elevator opened to a large waiting room with an equally large line at the check-out desk. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Hakuryuu’s posture fell. “By the time we get back, it’ll be too late to take a nap.”

“It’s already almost five. They sure took their time getting you a chair.” Judar looked down to see Hakuryuu holding a handful of fabric from his pants in his prosthetic hand. He released the fabric after a few seconds, then straightened it out on top of the chair. It looked odd to see the fabric fall easily to the top of chair without falling onto a leg. His other leg went farther, but still ended as a stump a few inches past his knee. 

It wasn’t like Hakuryuu would always have to rely on just a wheelchair. In fact, it would only be a week or so until his prostheses were finished if the process went smoothly. He was used to taking care of his prosthetic arm already so it wouldn’t be as life changing as it might have been for someone else, but it was still a pretty big deal. Hakuryuu hadn’t said much about how difficult it would be, or how much he’d have to rely on Judar - that much was obvious. Instead, he continued to silently play with the fabric of his pants.

Judar leaned on the back of the wheelchair, looking around the waiting room. He noticed people turn their faces away when he looked. He was used to staring at his long hair, but this was excessive. Judar grit his teeth together. It was a hospital, there was no reason to stare at a patient. Even if he was clearly missing two limbs, and less obviously missing a third.

“You can go sit in a chair if you want. One just opened over there,” Hakuryuu said as he motioned to the seating area next to the exit. “It’s probably another ten minutes in line.”

“I don’t mind standing,” Judar lied as he let his arms fall back around Hakuryuu. He turned back to look at the families he’d caught staring a minute ago to glare. 

“You’re just going to weird them out even more if you glare,” Hakuryuu mumbled. 

Judar turned his attention away from the seating area to nuzzle into Hakuryuu’s hair. “I can’t help it! I’ve gone like a week without picking a fight, standing in line like this is boring me into it.”

Hakuryuu ducked under Judar’s face to avoid any more attempted snuggling. He knew Judar didn’t care about others knowing his affection, but if he wanted everyone to stop staring he was doing it wrong. “What did you do all that time, anyway? I hope you ate something other than takeout.”

“Sure. I had lots of fresh fruit, and even ate the leftovers we had.”

“So you had takeout at least once a day.”

“Hakuryuuu… What else am I supposed to eat if you don’t cook for me?”

“You could try cooking for yourself.”

Judar groaned. “Did you really want to come back to a burnt up kitchen that bad?”

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes. “Really, I should start teaching you sometime. It’s really almost impressive that you lived so long without me feeding you.”

“Honestly, I’m just as surprised as you.” Judar looked up to see only one person left in front of them. “That wasn’t too bad," Judar said. "But I’m starving from all the waiting.”

“I’d say I’m looking forward to eating something other than hospital food, but takeout isn’t much better.”

The process of checking out itself wasn’t too tedious - it only took several minutes, since they had so much time to get everything in order from previous wait. Before long they were outside, taking in the feeling of a summer evening gratefully. Obnoxiously vocal cicadas overlapped with equally obnoxious crickets and the sounds of cars pulling out as visiting hours ended. 

“I almost forgot how fresh air feels,” Hakuryuu said, then brushed at his arm. “And how many bugs there are in the summer.”

“It’s a shitty time of day to be outside,” Judar agreed. “Kind of feels good after being stuck in that stuffy old building for forever.”

Hakuryuu nodded beside him. After taking in a few more breaths of warm, humid air they set off for home.

\---

They ate takeout on the couch (where all takeout should be eaten, in Judar’s opinion) while watching last week’s episode of Hakuryuu’s favorite shitty soap opera. Judar usually didn’t like to be in the same room as the TV while it was spitting out sobs of rejected women, but he didn’t want to give up his place as Hakuryuu’s pillow. Hakuryuu himself was nodding off. He probably wouldn’t make it to the end of the episode if Judar didn’t move too much. Then he’d be free from soap opera hell and his boyfriend who he hadn’t spent time with properly in forever would be asleep in his lap.

His plan was ruined when Hakuryuu sat up during a commercial break, yawning. “I’m thirsty,” he mumbled. Judar stared for a minute wondering why he didn’t just get something to drink for himself before understanding. Can't get up. Duh.

It went against everything in Judar’s nature to get up and get Hakuryuu exactly what he wanted without being an asshole at all, but… When he looked Hakuryuu, face turned away out of shame for his weakness, he gave a defeated smile. “Yes, my liege.” Judar joked as he got up and stretched. “Saves me from listening to a few minutes of your shitty soap opera anyway.”

“This episode hasn’t even been that good. It’s been obvious that he was going to get dumped for the past three seasons.” Hakuryuu settled himself back down, making himself comfortable without Judar’s lap pillow. “Maybe if he weren’t so high maintenance all the time he wouldn’t have to deal with divorce papers.”

Judar popped some ice from the freezer into a glass, and poured apple juice into it. Hakuryuu didn’t like the taste of tap water, and didn’t like wasting plastic with bottled water, and didn’t really like anything other than hot tea and coffee. Apple juice was the only non-caffeinated drink they owned that Hakuryuu would drink, so at eight at night while he was nodding off it was his only choice. 

He came back to the couch to find Hakuryuu much in the position he was in before the commercial break, sans a lap to lay on. “Here,” Judar handed the juice to Hakuryuu, then stole his spot back as his boyfriend took a sip. Judar lay his head on Hakuryuu’s shoulder, only half paying attention to the TV. They usually didn’t watch much, and only followed two or three series halfheartedly. Instead, they passed the time outside of the house, arguing, or having sex. Sometimes all three at once.

By the time the episode finished, Hakuryuu was sleeping sitting up. Judar waved a hand in front of his face to make sure, then stood. He couldn’t find a reason to move Hakuryuu’s wheelchair all the way to their bedroom when he could just… pick Hakuryuu up and carry him.

While thinking of how to go about it, Judar absentminded removed Hakuryuu’s hairpin - despite having been bedridden and in and out of surgery for weeks, he’d insisted on having the hairpin with him. It was a memento from one of his brothers, or a gift from them, or… something like that. If Hakuryuu left bed, he had his hairpin on. But if he was going to bed, he needed his hairpin off. 

Taking the pin out let Hakuryuu’s hair fall from his bun to his neck. His eyes opened slowly, fixing almost immediately on Judar’s arm on his head. “What are you doing,” he mumbled while yawning.

Judar kissed Hakuryuu’s lips lightly. “Getting ready for bed.”

“I can sleep here,” Hakuryuu said as he flopped down on the couch. It didn’t take anyone smarter than Judar to figure out why.

“I can carry you. Piggyback ride like we used to.”

“You used to always drop me. No way.”

“Hakuryuuuu,” Judar cooed as he knelt down in front of the couch for a hug, “I want to sleep with you. I was lonely for all that time without you.”

“Hug a pillow. I’m tired.”

“I’m way stronger than when I was an elementary schooler, you know? I can just carry you there, but I think it’d be more comfortable if you held on. I might really drop you otherwise!” Judar joked, pulling Hakuryuu towards the edge of the couch.

“No.”

“You need to brush your teeth too.”

“No.”

“I’ll brush them if you want.”

“Absolutely not.”

Judar leaned over Hakuryuu’s huddled mass and kissed his ear. “You’re being a baby.”

“I know.”

“Come here,” Judar said as he pulled Hakuryuu up. Hakuryuu wrapped easily around his back. He was heavy but manageable - with how tightly Hakuryuu was holding on, dropping him would probably be impossible.

Judar set Hakuryuu on the bathroom counter to brush his teeth. Judar knew it was hard for Hakuryuu to ask for help, but he couldn’t keep it up all week. He almost wished Hakuryuu had taken the opposite stance and took up ordering him like a dog - it was much more fun to see Hakuryuu’s smug face than this not meeting his eyes because he didn’t know how to ask for help.

Though the day was almost at a close, most of the hardest parts of the coming few days were in front of him. Hakuryuu had to… let Judar help change him, probably, unless he wanted to spend way longer than necessary trying to get more comfortable clothes on alone. Or they could just sleep naked. Judar really didn’t mind if they did but he didn’t want to avoid the issue forever. He’d do anything for Hakuryuu. Changing his clothes for a couple of days, or even indefinitely was really no big deal no matter how big of a deal Hakuryuu thought it was. Judar couldn’t count the amount of times he’d already taken Hakuryuu’s clothes off already anyway, what did it matter if he did it outside of sex too?

He held out his arms and Hakuryuu climbed back onto him, holding equally tight as last time. This time, Judar couldn’t resist commenting. “You’re like a koala,” He said as he rubbed his nose into Hakuryuu’s hair.

“S, shut up and carry me already!”

“Yes, my king,” Judar joked. Hakuryuu’s royal attitude was the subject of many of his fond comments. Hakuryuu smiled. He seemed to take a certain pleasure in being addressed as if he were the most important person in the world (which he was to Judar, incidentally). Judar set Hakuryuu on the bed gently, then tossed a robe at him from the open dresser.

“It looks like you didn’t do laundry at all.”

“Of course not. Who do you think I am?” Judar replied as he changed. They both wore robes to bed out of habit. Plus, they were comfortable and easy to remove, which was important.

Hakuryuu had gotten his shirt off and was fiddling with his pants. Judar hopped on the bed with him, and pulled at his empty pant leg. Hakuryuu shot him a glare, but didn’t bat the hand away. Hakuryuu tied his robe around his waist and moved to his pillow gracelessly. His left leg, a bandaged stump ending just before his knee, created far more mobility issues than his right leg. 

Judar lay down at his pillow, staring obviously at Hakuryuu. Hakuryuu slid under the unmade bed’s covers easily, met Judar’s gaze, then closed his eyes. “Goodnight.”

“Aren’t you gonna take your arm off?”

He shrugged. Judar pulled himself closer, and fished around under the sheets for Hakuryuu’s hand. “I’m taking it off. I am not waking up to this thing hitting me.”

Hakuryuu didn’t respond and let Judar remove his prosthetic arm without pulling it away. Judar climbed over Hakuryuu to set the arm on his nightstand, then turned off the light and cuddled up to Hakuryuu’s back.

Judar kissed Hakuryuu’s neck through his hair. He didn’t need to say he was glad he was back again, or tell Hakuryuu about how in love he is again, since they were both embarrassing and Hakuryuu probably wasn’t in the mood to deal with his overly affectionate words, so Judar satisfied himself with kissing at Hakruyuu’s back and moving his hands and legs around until their limbs comfortably intertwined. It had a different feeling than before, but it was just as comfortable.

“I have to go in for work tomorrow for a little while,” Hakuryuu murmured.

“What time?”

“Sometime early. Probably around eight. That’s when the part-times come in.”

Judar groaned. Hakuryuu turned to face him, and busied himself with straightening Judar’s bangs. Judar put his hands on Hakuryuu’s face and kissed him. “Think I can do it?” Judar mumbled onto his lips. 

Hakuryuu smiled. “I can probably just text them most of the directions and come in around noon. I’m sure they can figure out how to water some plants without me.” Hakuryuu returned the kiss, hand moving to the back of Judar’s neck.

“They better,” Judar said between kisses.

Before long, Hakuryuu ducked his head under Judar’s chin. “I don’t feel like texting them either.”

“They’ll figure it out. Pretty sure you have a good enough excuse to not be there.”

“Alibaba’s going to be a pain to deal with. He’s so nosy and… ugh. Nice.”

“I hate nice people. I can scare him off.”

“You sound so excited at the prospect of picking a fight.”

“I can’t help it! Like I said, I haven’t acted like a bitch in forever.”

“I can't say I don't understand. I felt like I was laying in purgatory for forever. I hate hospitals.”

“Would have visited more if they let me. Can you believe it, they said I’d be a distraction.”

Hakuryuu laughed. Judar felt the warm puffs of air on his chest, and felt his heart twist. He knew he was blushing and was grateful for the dark room. Judar ran a hand through Hakuryuu’s hair, breaking up small knots and smoothing it out. His dark hair had a silky texture that was pleasant to the touch; Judar could pet it for hours.

“Love you,” Hakuryuu said quietly, voice muffled further by Judar’s robes. Judar froze, and immediately Hakuryuu began to laugh at him. “You get flustered so easily.”

Judar bumped his head with the top of Hakuryuu’s. “I can make you flustered too. I can talk about how much I love you for hours.”

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes. “I have to go to bed before sunrise. You too, so keep it short.”

Judar rubbed his nose with Hakuryuu’s. “I love you and I've been bored as hell while you were gone. Let’s go to sleep now so we can lay in bed all morning.”

Hakuryuu nodded, yawning. “Sounds good.”

\---

Judar woke to the blinds open and the sun shining in his face. He squinted his eyes back shut and searched the other side of the bed for a stray pillow to put over his face, tugging when he found one. The pillow resisted, and in his half-asleep state Judar tugged harder.

“I’m not giving you my pillow. The sun’s shining in your eyes, which as usual means it’s past noon and you should get up.”

Judar gave up trying to steal the pillow and moved his arms lower, clinging to handfuls of Hakuryuu’s clothes and his warm waist. “Let’s go back to sleep,” Judar whined. “It’s early.”

“It’s past noon. I’ve been up for hours.”

“It’s early.”

Judar heard a page turn. Hakuryuu wasn’t a dedicated reader, but he did read sometimes, mostly on the weekends waiting for Judar to wake up. He didn’t seem to read for the sake of reading but rather so he could show off his knowledge of classics and various subjects. It was silly and made Hakuryuu look like even more of a spoiled brat than he was, but it kept him from waking Judar too early.

Hakuryuu tried to push Judar off and back to his own pillow with limited success. Judar did move, but moved to curl around Hakuryuu’s arm instead of his waist.

“I can’t read if you’re on my arm.”

Judar kissed the smooth skin of Hakuryuu’s upper arm. “You could give up reading and take a nap with me.”

“You just got up five minutes ago! You don’t need a nap.” Hakuryuu snapped. “Besides,” he said as he set his book on the nightstand, “I need to go into work soon.”

Judar groaned. “That’s right, what a pain.”

Hakuryuu was silent. Judar knew that if he didn’t respond Hakuryuu would stress over reminding him that he needed help, and then be pissy all day, so Judar stretched and opened his eyes as wide as he could to keep himself from accidentally falling back asleep.

“Why are mornings so bright…”

“It’s not morning. And it’s bright because the sun is at its highest point, which also happens to be shining through the window. It’s a good thing it does because I don’t think you’d ever get out of bed without it.”

“I’d get up eventually. For a little while,” Judar said as he sat up, checking his braid. Still presentable, but he’d need to redo it later. He could feel Hakuryuu’s eyes on him, so he turned to hug his boyfriend, quickly turning it into a lazy morning (afternoon) kiss.

“Took you long enough to get up,” Hakuryuu said to his mouth.

Judar smiled, kissing him again. “If you were really annoyed, you’d wake me up.”

Hakuryuu pouted. “It’s not possible! You sleep like a rock. And you’re a rude fuck in the morning too.”

“Wow, you're starting to sound like me. Do you want coffee here or do you want some from that shitty fast food place on the way or something?”

Hakuryuu pursed his lips. “I want real food, not that garbage.”

Judar fingered through Hakuryuu’s hair absentmindedly. “Think you can cook any real food? Seems exhausting stuck in a chair.”

“You would have to help. But I probably don’t have the time to teach you enough to be useful today. We should really get ready.”

Judar nodded, and glanced through the room idly. No wheelchair was to be found.

“You left it in the living room. You aren’t too asleep to carry me, are you?”

“No way. I can do it.” Judar pulled the thin layers of covers off Hakuryuu and examined his figure. It was weird to see him without feet at the end of his robe, that was for sure.

“Judar?”

“I want to carry you bridal style this time.”

Hakuryuu stared, disbelieving. “I… what? Why?”

Judar slid off the bed and placed a hand on Hakuryuu’s back, leaning him closer. He moved his other arm under Hakuryuu’s knee and held the edge of his outer thigh closely, lifting Hakuryuu with effort.

Hakuryuu instinctively pulled his arms around Judar’s neck. “I swear,” he said threateningly, “If you drop me I’m dumping you.”

Judar laughed. “I’m not gonna drop you! I’ll drop you once you get your new prostheses.”

“That’s… really not comforting at all. Hold my back lower. This angle is bad.”

In that way, the afternoon progressed peacefully. With little incident, they managed to buy a mini-pancake and coffee (or smoothie) breakfast and came to help out at Hakuryuu’s work only a half hour behind the decided time. 

Alibaba noticed Hakuryuu’s car and came to greet them at the parking lot. “Hakuryuu! You’re late. You’re never late, and you didn’t text. I was worried!”

Judar was unpacking the wheelchair, scowling at Alibaba’s persistent chatting. “I’m always late, it balances things out.”

“Sorry, Alibaba. He insisted that he get a smoothie and since I wasn’t driving I had no say.”

“You little brat! You’re the one who has to have that bitter garbage daily,” Judar accused as he pointed to the coffee cup secured between Hakuryuu’s hands. Hakuryuu smiled slyly back at him. Fuckin’ brat.

“Is there any way I can help?” Alibaba fretted, looking as if he wanted to pace.

“No. Get back to work,” Judar ordered, bringing the wheelchair to the shotgun seat.

“Judar, you don’t work here. Don’t order him around,” Hakuryuu said as he climbed onto the wheelchair. He turned to meet Alibaba’s stare. “You can get back to work, I’ll be in there in a minute.”

Alibaba nodded, and left to the air-conditioned building.

When he was out of ear-shot, Hakuryuu spoke. “From what Alibaba texted me earlier, it seems like the next shipment of plants arrived early. Morgiana is unloading it but they’ll need directions on where it all goes. There will be lots of plants that need more soil in their pots, too. Shipping can be messy.”

“Are you asking me to do your work for the day?”

Hakuryuu smiled. “Exactly. If we get all of this shipment sorted out today we won’t have to come in tomorrow. I’ll take an afternoon nap with you.”

Judar dropped his arms around Hakuryuu’s neck lazily. “Still, couldn’t they pick a cooler day to ship plants? This is suffocating.”

“The building is air-conditioned. Not that you’ll be spending much time in there, but I can get you cold water if you ask nicely.”

Judar began pushing Hakuryuu’s wheelchair to the main building. The plant nursery consisted of a greenhouse, a small outdoor orchard, an outdoor drop off area for new shipments, and of course an air-conditioned building for transactions and abiotic garden necessities.

Inside, Alibaba was helping a customer decide on fertilizer. The cashier was playing on their phone, chair in an awkward place to help customers from but ideal placement to catch the breeze from the overhead fan. Sneaky.

“It’s not much cooler in here,” Judar observed solemnly.

“Not really, but the lounge is a little better. You can take a break there later if you want,” Hakuryuu said, then pointed to a door opposite to where they’d come from. “Shipments are this way. Morgiana should be about done unloading them now, so you can help organize them.”

Judar sighed. “You really should pay me for this.”

“You end up spending all my money anyway. It really doesn’t make a difference who earns it.”

“Still, shouldn’t you be getting a free paycheck since you were in the hospital? If I were you I’d be enjoying freedom laying around at home.”

“I already got a free paycheck. I’m out of the hospital so I can work. Besides, it’ll only take around an hour if you work hard.”

It ended up taking more than an hour, to say the least. Many plants needed an extra couple inches of dirt after the travel damage, and giving Judar dirt turned out to be a bad idea. He flicked it at Hakuryuu, at Alibaba, and at the kid who came to play when his mom at the next store over couldn’t get anyone to watch him. Said kid, an enthusiastic middle schooler, threw dirt back. Currently, they were ducking around the displays having a projectile fight.

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” Alibaba asked, wiping sweat from his forehead. He’d been roped into helping with shipment once Morgiana left for the day after her morning shift.

“Let them burn off some energy. Judar will just pick a fight with you next if he doesn’t do this now.”

Alibaba laughed. “How can you stand living with him? Not to be rude, but he’s kind of a dick.”

Hakuryuu smiled fondly. “He gets easier to deal with the longer you know him.” He glanced to where Judar was waiting to surprise Aladdin. “He’s going to give up running around and start yelling instead when he notices there’s dirt in his braid, then when he gets tired of yelling he’ll try to convince me to let him take a break.”

Alibaba cocked an eyebrow, but seconds later Judar’s screech rang through the greenhouse. 

“Fucker got dirt in my hair! Get back here, you brat!”

“Judar, he’s just a kid,” Hakuryuu called, unsurprised at Judar’s language nonetheless.

“If he’s old enough to mess up my hair he’s old enough to deal with the consequences!” Judar replied hotly.

“Just drop some dirt on his hair and call it even.”

“Isn’t that just encouraging him?” Alibaba whispered as Judar strode by.

“No, he was probably going to try and fist fight him. He really has no concept of how to deal with kids. You have to steer him in the right direction.”

“Still…” Alibaba mumbled as he opened a new bag of dirt. “You always talk about how eccentric he is, and every time I’m still surprised when I see him. He’s never going to get a girlfriend like that.”

Hakuryuu scoffed. “Yeah, probably not a _girlfriend._ ”

Alibaba nodded. “Right! I can’t imagine him being romantic at all either. I bet even I can get a date before him.”

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes. His tone had gone completely over Alibaba’s head as usual. He didn’t necessarily mean to keep their relationship a secret - everyone just made it very hard to mention it. He tried to hint at it when he could, for what it was worth. “That I can’t agree with. He’s a sap at heart. It’s charming in its own way.”

Alibaba raised an eyebrow, his eyes following Judar out of the greenhouse and into the orchard they’d seen Aladdin enter moments ago. Though they were yelling and carrying on like children, the sound of summer bugs drowned out the annoyance and made them seem more like background noise.

“I guess we should start sorting these out now,” Alibaba said as he admired his work in perking up the sadder looking plants with new dirt and some pruning.

Hakuryuu nodded. “Since they’re already playing around, you can take a break for awhile. Enjoy the air-conditioning inside.”

Alibaba laughed. “It’ll just be hotter when I come back out if I do that. Want something from the vending machines?”

“Sure,” Hakuryuu said as he fished around for loose cash. “Could you get apple juice and… one of those gross fake fruit punch drinks?”

“I’m surprised you’re buying him a drink after he just loafed around the whole time.”

Hakuryuu shrugged. “If we don’t get him one now, he’ll probably break the vending machine trying to get one himself. He’s really not good with technology.”

In the time Alibaba was gone, the ruckus had calmed down. If it weren’t for the humid heat, Hakuryuu might have been able to fall asleep to the calming chirps of life.

Hearing footsteps, Hakuryuu opened his eyes. Alibaba was holding four cans, careful not to shake them.

“Apple juice, cola, flavored water, and fruit punch! The holy trinity plus one.” Alibaba handed Hakuryuu the juices, and called for Aladdin to join them. Aladdin came scampering out from the main building, hair wet and braid undone.

“You got me water!” Aladdin smiled as he thanked Alibaba and drank his fill.

“No problem. Hey, he didn’t dunk your head in water or anything did he?”

Aladdin shook his head. “I was just washing the dirt out. I’ll braid it again later.”

“Judar must be offended that you have the same hairstyle,” Hakuryuu joked. “That or he’s just glad to have found someone his age to play with.”

Aladdin and Alibaba laughed. “He really is like a kid! Oh,” Aladdin stopped laughing and nudged at Alibaba to do the same when Judar came back out. “I guess he decided against taking his braid out.”

Though Judar had kept his dirt covered braid in tact, he abandoned his shirt indoors. Judar’s arms wrapped around Hakuryuu as he slumped over his shoulder. “Hakuryuu… Why’s it so hot…”

Hakuryuu handed the fruit punch to Judar. “It gets hotter outside every time you go in the cool building. You learn to avoid it.” He pushed Judar’s arms back over the edge of the wheelchair. “Put your shirt back on, you’re getting sweat all over me.”

Judar took the fruit punch but didn’t change his position. Instead, he ran a thumb under Hakuryuu’s waistband while he spoke. “It’s too hot for a shirt! How can you stand to be wearing so much?”

Hakuryuu took Judar’s hand holding the fruit punch in his own. “Do you not want this? I can pour it on your head if you want. I bet it’d cool you down.” It would be embarrassing, if a little funny, if Alibaba noticed Judar’s unashamed flirting after all.

Judar snatched his hand back and made an unhappy noise. “What’s up with that! I’m drinking it, see?” He made an exaggerated motion of pulling off the cap and downing the fruit punch.

Hakuryuu smiled, then turned away. Judar was always trying to ruin his image of a serious manager by making him smile. “By the way, do we have enough shampoo to wash your hair?”

Alibaba gave him a questioning look, then his face changed to shock. Hakuryuu tried to ignore him - he’d probably just figured out how impossible it’d be to bathe on his own, or something.

Judar shrugged. “Probably not. We should go to the store after this. You needed more painkillers anyway, right?”

Hakuryuu nodded.

“Okay, let’s put everything away now. Judar, the shrubs are easy to sort out so you can take care of those. Alibaba, you can do the perennials.”

Aladdin crouched down to examine the annuals. “I can take care of these. I know where most of them go.”

As long as Aladdin didn’t ask for a paycheck his help was appreciated. “Of course. Please do,” Hakuryuu replied.

“You’re such a good worker even though you’re a kid, Aladdin.” Alibaba grinned as he ruffled Aladdin’s hair.

“I’m a big help even though I don’t work here too, right?” Judar asked as he sat down to examine the shrubs.

“Mm… I don’t know. You keep getting distracted. It’s not in the dress code to walk around shirtless, either.”

Judar stuck out his tongue. “I look damn good. If I worked here I bet your boss would let me do it.”

Alibaba laughed. “I doubt it, he’s way more strict than he looks.” His tone turned envious as he glanced at Judar’s figure. “Really, what’s up with that? You look like you could be a model.”

Judar smiled triumphantly. “Naturally, I work hard to look amazing. You can tell I put in five times as much effort as the likes of you.” He picked up a young shrub to carry over to Hakuryuu. “Hey, what’s this?”

Hakuryuu glanced at the leaves quickly. It was a common and popular shrub, Rhododendron. “Does it not have a label?”

“It does, but what’s it called?”

“At least try to read it.”

“Just tell me,” Judar whined.

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes. “You’ll never get done if you can’t sound out their names. Here, it’s…” He placed a finger under the first syllable on the label, following along with his hand as he pronounced the plant’s name. “Rho-do-den-dron.”

“Rhododendron…” Judar mumbled, turning the cheap black pot in his hands. “Where does it go?”

“With the other rhododendrons. Back of the perennials.”

Judar nodded, walking back off. He watched as Alibaba returned from the opposite direction to collect more perennials to put away.

Like that, the remainder of the work day passed quickly. With the shipment put away and all questions of fertilizing and the watering schedule written down for Alibaba, Hakuryuu and Judar returned to the overheated car.

“Store first, then home, right?” Judar asked, watching Hakruyuu fiddle with the air conditioning.

“Yeah. You’ll throw a fit if you don’t have enough shampoo after all.” Hakuryuu lay back in his seat, wiping his hand across his sweaty bangs. “We can get something to eat while we’re there too.”

Judar nodded, pulling out of the garden center’s parking lot. Hakuryuu wasn’t fond of grocery store salad bars or pre-cooked chicken, but there wasn’t much he could make until he got his prosthetic legs. Feeling Hakuryuu’s shame at not being able to even cook efficiently radiating off was enough to make Judar wish that he hadn’t been so stubborn in learning to cook a little.

The ride to the store was mostly quiet - well, mostly not talking. Judar had a habit of always singing every song he knew on the radio, whether he liked the song itself or not, and Hakuryuu was always impressed at his knowledge of obscure and hard to understand lyrics. Even so, when one came on that they both knew they weren’t above singing car duets and arguing over who got what part.

Hakuryuu had, for the most part, gotten over being embarrassed by Judar's antics years ago. It was fun enough going along with him that he sometimes even forgot that other people might notice something as silly as car duets. That was the thing about Judar. He demanded attention in a way that made it easy to forget their surroundings.

Despite Judar’s clumsiness, he was getting pretty good at folding and unfolding the wheelchair. The parking lot wasn’t as empty as he would have liked it to be, considering it was only Wednesday afternoon, but it wasn’t crowded either and was relatively easy to take a parking space close to the building entrance. He grabbed a basket and handed it to Hakuryuu, who held it in his lap.

“I haven’t checked the fridge since I got back. Do we have anything?”

Judar made a noncommittal noise. “We don’t have nothing.”

“I hope you ate everything instead of just letting it go bad.”

Judar huffed. “Of course I did! I missed you so much that I even ate the one with all the vegetables. The noodle one.”

“What does missing me have to do with eating your vegetables…?”

“You made it, duh. Hey, let’s get chicken. I want fried rice.”

Hakuryuu shifted uncomfortably. “We can get it, but you might have to cook it. I can prepare everything but it might be difficult to use the stove. We’ll see.”

“…That’s fine. It’s about time I learn how to at least cook a chunk of meat. Can’t be that hard.”

“You’d be surprised. Actually, if you’re finally willing to learn you should start with beef instead. That way you won’t get sick if it’s undercooked.”

Judar hummed, staring at the meat selection. “Which ones do we normally get…”

“Black packaging on the beef and green on the chicken. You want the one that looks like it has the smallest amount of fat on the beef.”

Judar handed his choices to Hakuryuu, who inspected them before nodding his approval and placing them in the basket.

A display at the corner caught his eye. Judar grabbed a box of the dried and sugared peaches, waited until Hakuryuu looked away, and placed it in the basket. Then he set to examining shelves for other items on the list. He was squinting at the confusing line of painkillers in front of him when he felt something hit his back with a soft noise.

“Ow, ow…” Judar grumbled as he rubbed his back. It didn’t particularly hurt, but was shocking. On the ground behind him was the box of peach snacks and Hakuryuu’s fake innocent smile.

“Nice try, but it won’t work as long as I have the basket.”

Judar narrowed his eyes and tossed the box back into the basket. Hakuryuu tossed it back at his back when he turned around. Before long, they were laughing and trying to avoid the scowling employee at the pharmacy counter.

“Oh,” Judar exclaimed, “I just remembered. We’re out of tea.”

“No, I bought more before I left.”

Judar turned away sheepishly before replying. “Yeah, I… drank it all…”

“I thought you didn’t like tea. It’s too bitter for you, right?”

“Turns out it’s not that bitter if you put a whole lot of sugar into it.”

Hakuryuu laughed. “You didn’t put more than a spoonful in, did you? That hardly counts as tea anymore.”

“Listen, you! It smells so nice but it’s so bitter. But if you put a lot of sugar… two or three spoonfuls in… then it actually tastes kinda like how it smells.”

Hakuryuu gave Judar a sly smile. Add drinking all his favorite tea while he was gone to the list of things his lonely boyfriend did while he was fretting around nervously for two weeks.

After another couple minutes of loafing around, Judar trying to convince Hakuryuu to let him buy luxury items to treat him to and only being told to put around half of them back, they made it out of the store with a full basket.

\---

By the time they were back home in their single bedroom apartment a light, warm rain had started outside. Though the groceries had remained dry for the most part, walking back and forth between the apartment door and the car had dampened Judar’s hair.

“At least it’s not dirty now,” Hakuryuu commented from where he watched on the couch.

Judar whined as he undid his braid. “It’s cold. Let’s take a bath.”

“‘Let’s,’” Hakuryuu repeated monotonously. Judar grinned back at him.

“I haven’t taken a bath with you in forever! It’s much faster to wash my hair together anyway.”

“Oh, you just wanted me in there to take care of your hair for you? In that case—”

“No! Don’t finish that. I want to wash you too. You might still smell like hospital, I have to make sure it’s gone.”

Despite his efforts to keep a straight face, Hakuryuu laughed softly. “You sound so worried that I won’t bathe with you. It’s not like I’m going to wait until tomorrow after being out in the sun all day.”

Judar hummed in satisfaction. “I knew you’d agree. It’s boring being here alone, even in the bath.”

“I know. You’ve already told me a thousand times.” After a slight pause, he continued. “You visited whenever you could, right? We weren’t even really apart for that long.” Hakuryuu shifted from the couch back onto his wheelchair and stared at Judar expectantly.

Judar moved to bring Hakuryuu to the bathroom with him. “Yeah, but you weren’t really paying attention to me. And half the time you were too buzzed on painkillers to pay attention.”

Hakuryuu huffed. “You were probably just complaining about everything trying to cover up how worried you were. Honestly,” He slid from his wheelchair to the edge of the bath and started the water. “You’re way softer than you make yourself out to be.”

“Only for you! I wouldn’t have even visited anyone else.”

“Still,” Hakuryuu paused to pull his shirt over his head, tossing it in the laundry basket. “I can practically hear you pacing worriedly when I close my eyes. One or two legs aren’t a big deal, you know.”

Judar removed his clothes silently, dropping them on the floor next to the laundry basket.

“The basket is right there! Don’t be so lazy.”

Judar smiled, stepping into the bath. He turned the temperature up before sliding Hakuryuu from the bath’s edge into his lap. He kissed Hakuryuu’s cheek, then the corner of his mouth. He put his hands behind Hakuryuu’s back and inched him closer.

Hakuryuu let Judar kiss his nose and lips softly. He wrapped his arms around Judar’s neck and returned his affection seriously, a deeper kiss sliding from the top of Judar’s lips to suck lightly on his lower lip. When Hakuryuu pulled away, Judar ducked under his chin to lay his head on the crook of Hakuryuu’s neck.

Hakuryuu rubbed Judar’s back softly before gathering his hair together and moving it over Judar’s shoulder. “Your hair is so pretty,” he murmured as he ran his hands through the ends to smooth it out.

Judar beamed. “Obviously, it always looks great. Did you see that kid’s hair earlier? He’s trying to grow it super long like mine but he doesn’t take care of it as well so it’s thinner.” Judar pushed his head under the faucet, soaking his hair.

“Maybe yours is just naturally thicker. I bet his doesn’t take as long to wash.” Hakuryuu took off his prosthetic arm and placed it on his wheelchair. Though it would be a great help in washing hair, it wouldn’t last as long if he was always getting it wet. Even if his parents were wealthy, Hakuryuu’s reluctance to turn to his family for any form of aid meant that he was living off the money from his and Judar’s jobs instead of the stale money of the Ren family. He couldn’t afford the luxury of new limbs every month so he needed to keep what he had in good condition.

Hakuryuu took the ends of Judar’s long hair and began to lather shampoo onto it. It felt silky on his fingers, and he was more of playing with it than helping since he only had one hand to use.

Thankfully, Judar never seemed to mind. He hummed absentmindedly as he worked at his hair, pausing every time he bumped hands with Hakuryuu to kiss his cheeks or forehead. It was distracting, and made it take a longer amount of time than was likely necessary to wash Judar’s hair, but it was part of what made bathing together fun instead of a frustrating experience for Hakuryuu who needed help just to bathe in his current state.

After almost an hour, the water was lukewarm and Judar was satisfied with how clean they both were. He wrung his hair out and pulled the drain before helping Hakuryuu up into a towel.

Judar was always as gentle as possible with his hair, forgoing blow-drying in favor of drying it carefully with a towel. It would still be damp when he got around to combing it, but anything was better than a head full of damaged hair. He took it pretty seriously.

Judar handed Hakuryuu his robe after putting one on himself. He scowled at the mirror’s reflection of his hair, wavy and unkempt looking. Judar picked up the comb before remembering he needed to figure out what Hakuryuu wanted to do before worrying about his own hair. “Hey,” he started, “wanna keep catching up on the shows you missed?”

Hakuryuu shrugged. “I’m not really that interested,” he mumbled as he messed with his prosthetic arm.

“Tired?”

“Not really.”

“I don’t feel like combing my hair.”

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes. Judar had already gone back to checking out his hair’s reflection, trying to smooth out especially unruly strands with his fingers.

“I don’t really have anything else to do, so I guess I can do it,” Hakuryuu said.

Judar looked at him with slight surprise before setting the comb back down on the counter and turning away. “Well, I guess. Since you want to.”

“Oh, come on. You were practically begging me to, staring at your hair then at me back and forth like that.” Hakuryuu put a strand of his own hair behind his ear. His was much less work to take care of than Judar’s due to its shorter length, but he could understand Judar’s need for his hair to look good. 

Judar fiddled with his bangs absentmindedly. “It’ll be more comfortable on the bed,” he said. He didn’t like to admit when he wanted Hakuryuu to touch his hair, or touch him in general. Or rather, whether he liked it or not he was often too bashful to actually ask when it came to sappy little things.

It was funny, really. Judar could talk about how much he loved Hakuryuu all day but the second the tables turned and Hakuryuu was trying to express how much he cared, however subtly, Judar got embarrassed.

Knowing that Judar would get flustered over it was half the reason Hakuryuu wanted to do little things for him like combing his hair out and braiding it. The other half… well. He was embarrassed too.

Judar stood in front of Hakuryuu and thought for a moment. “The first time was a piggy back ride, second was bridal style…”

“Oh, come on. Shut up and take me to the bed already or I’ll just use the wheelchair.”

Judar grinned. “As I thought, being carried like a princess suits you best.”

“I’m surprised you knew it had two names,” Hakuryuu said as he wrapped his arms around Judar’s neck and allowed himself to be hoisted up in a princess carry.

“You had me watch all those romance movies with you, how could I not know?” Judar joked.

“I didn’t think you payed that much attention to them.”

“T, that’s right, I only picked it up by chance.”

“By chance.” Hakuryuu repeated. “Okay,” He smirked at Judar as he was set down lightly.

“Ahh, give me a break!” Judar exclaimed and jumped on the bed beside Hakuryuu, grabbing his waist and trying to pull his sitting partner to lay with him.

“Can’t, I have to comb your hair first.”

Judar sat back up. “Right, I almost forgot.”

Hakuryuu pulled Judar’s long hair into a more concise pile at his back. Starting from the bottom, he worked his way up carefully. The smell of Judar’s shampoo, somewhere between fruity and perfumey but without the overpowering smell of either, was familiar in a way that few things were.

Every time Hakuryuu’s hand brushed Judar’s skin, he fidgeted in a way that more distracting than bothersome. Hakuryuu ran a finger along Judar’s clothed spine to watch his back arch. The response was more exaggerated than he thought it would be. 

Judar whined at Hakuryuu’s soft laugh. “Stop teasing me and finish combing it already. I can’t do anything until it’s braided again, you know.”

Hakuryuu finished combing it soon enough and set to work braiding. He wasn’t very good at it when he first moved in with Judar and frustrated Judar into doing it himself more than he braided it satisfactorily, but he’d gotten the hang of it over time somehow.

“All done,” Hakuryuu mumbled. Judar shook his head, satisfied with the feeling of his braid weighing it down, and turned to look at Hakuryuu.

With his back propped against his pillows, Hakuryuu was laying his his back almost against the bed’s headboard. Judar stretched before curling up at Hakuryuu’s side.

Hakuryuu watched Judar try to make himself comfortable, finding a soft place on Hakuryuu’s stomach to lay his head and kicking his legs until they found a comfortable position.

“You’re like a cat,” Hakuryuu said as he stroked Judar’s hair absentmindedly. “Are you really tired this early?”

“Not really.” When Judar spoke, his lips touched Hakuryuu’s covered stomach lightly. He draped an arm on Hakuryuu’s thigh, rubbing at the soft skin without thinking.

Hakuryuu shifted uncomfortably, but as soon as he moved Judar’s head from his stomach his boyfriend moved right back. “Whaaat,” Judar whined, trying to sound annoyed at Hakuryuu trying to move him off but failing. He looked up from his place on top of his Hakuryuu pillow to look at Hakuryuu’s face, pink and slightly uncomfortable.

“Hm? Oh,” Judar smiled, bringing a hand to run along Hakuryuu’s side. “Like it?”

Hakuryuu shrugged. “I can’t believe how often you do that without thinking, that’s all.”

“You should have just said something.”

“That’s not… _ah,_ ” Hakuryuu tried to protest but was stopped by Judar, who had moved to sitting on his lap, knees on either side of Hakuryuu’s thighs with a hand on top of Hakuryuu’s hardening dick.

“It’s not…?” Judar repeated. “If you’re trying to say you don't have to, I want to. Really.” He picked up his arms and placed them loving around Hakuryuu’s neck and kissed his forehead before taking Hakuryuu’s lips in his. Hakuryuu opened his mouth, getting his hot breath on Judar’s lips. Judar’s breath hitched in return. “I thought you didn’t like tongue?”

“W, well,” Hakuryuu stuttered, “I just thought it would be worth giving it another try.”

Judar looked at Hakuryuu’s lips, pursed in a pout, and felt his face heat up. Last time he tried to get his tongue in, Hakuryuu had said that it ‘wasn’t attractive in the slightest to have someone else’s spit all over’. Judar assumed his opinion on tongues had changed from getting eaten out, but if he pressed it Hakuryuu would back out entirely. So Judar shrugged and brought his mouth back to Hakuryuu’s.

Trying something new was always a little bit awkward. Judar licked Hakuryuu’s lips before kissing him, turning Hakuryuu’s head back a little to meet him at a better angle. 

Judar slid his tongue into Hakuryuu’s slightly open mouth, feeling his teeth and - there was his tongue, a small noise coming from Hakuryuu’s throat to express some mix of surprise and pleasure. 

The feeling of Hakuryuu's lips around Judar’s tongue and the little noises Hakuryuu made when he didn’t know how to react were what turned him on. His tongue slid out with a wet sound and brought a thin line of saliva with it.

Hakuryuu looked at the saliva, face hot from the feeling and wet from kissing, and rubbed his mouth with his sleeve. Judar laughed. “There’s spit everywhere.”

“It’s… different.”

“Takes some getting used to,” Judar agreed as he moved down from Hakuryuu’s neck to his chest, pushing the loose robe down his shoulders. He licked the newly exposed skin at the side of his neck before sucking on it for a second a moving up Hakuryuu’s neck just a little. The skin at the nape of his neck was damp from bathing and sweating, and a long time favorite place of Judar’s to nibble at.

After sucking and biting for a minute, training his tongue from smooth to scarred skin indiscriminately, Judar felt Hakuryuu’s hand trail down his back. He didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but Hakuryuu always did it when he was ready to go further.

Judar slid a hand under Hakuryuu’s robe to caress his thigh. Hakuryuu responded by parting his legs, and tightened his hold on the fabric covering Judar’s back when he took Hakuryuu’s erection in his hand.

Hakuryuu’s breath hitching was all the encouragement Judar needed - he repositioned himself to uncover Hakuryuu’s back and ran one hand along the bottom of his spine as the other hand stroked from tip to base. Hakuryuu’s quiet _mm_ s and _ah_ s got louder as Judar tightened his hold and sped up.

“Hey, Hakuryuu. I’m surprised your legs don’t hurt too much for you to get off.”

“It’s not, _ah_ , that bad,” Hakuryuu said. “I really will finish if you keep it up.”

Judar stopped, tossing his own robe to the floor before returning to Hakuryuu’s space. He knew he was already half hard from getting Hakuryuu off, but he couldn’t help it.

He loved touching Hakuryuu. He loved doing things that he knew felt good and seeing Hakuryuu’s expression improve into content from being cuddled, or change into desire from being bitten or sucked on. 

“Hakuryuu.”

“Hm?”

“Let me fuck you.”

Hakuryuu opened his eyes. His mouth was parted as he processed Judar’s words. It wasn’t really intentional, Judar knew. It was more like he just forgot to close it when he didn’t know what to say sometimes.

Judar kissed his parted mouth before Hakuryuu answered. “You’re cute,” Judar said into Hakuryuu’s lips. “So I want to fuck you.”

“…Weren’t you concerned about the pain a little while ago?”

“You said it didn’t hurt too much. Don’t you have like, unreal pain tolerance anyway?”

Hakuryuu scoffed. “It’s not unreal. I’m just used to it. The painkillers are pretty strong, too. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“You’re the only person I know who would say that about losing both legs,” Judar said fondly as he rubbed Hakuryuu’s head. 

Hakuryuu smiled and rolled his eyes. Judar had the weirdest compliments.

Judar brought his hands behind Hakuryuu to hug him tightly as he kissed Hakuryuu.

After a few more minutes of taking Judar’s affectionate kisses, becoming more and more needy as he licked and nibbled, Hakuryuu decided to go along with it. “How were you wanting to fuck me?”

Judar smiled victoriously. He tilted his head a bit, looked around the bed, then settled on pushing Hakuryuu down to a laying position. “On your back is fine.”

Hakuryuu made himself comfortable lying down, pulling a couple of pillows from Judar’s side over to his pile.

Judar lifted one of Hakuryuu’s legs before putting it back down. “I need to prepare you, huh.”

“It’s been awhile, so probably.” Even if it hadn’t been awhile, Hakuryuu didn’t bottom nearly as often as Judar. Back when they first started fucking he’d outright refused. It was a little intimidating the first time he was willing to try, but he did end up liking it. So while Hakuryuu still didn’t bottom as much, he did enjoy it from time to time.

It took Judar a minute to find the lube and another to prepare Hakuryuu to a satisfactory level. Finally, while humming his approval, Judar re-positioned himself. He pushed in slowly, making a muffled sound at the feeling.

Judar, clumsy as ever, took a few thrusts to find a good place. He started slow but quickly sped up - from lack of self restraint or because he liked it rougher himself, Hakuryuu didn’t know. It was good in a way that was very Judar, as sappy as that was. Hakuryuu wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“Hakuryuu, you feel so good.”

“B, because it’s been so long.”

Judar squeezed where he was holding onto Hakuryuu’s hips. “It always feels so good being in you.”

If Hakuryuu thought he could respond without his voice wavering in a shameless fashion, he would have. Instead, he was brought to panting by Judar’s thrusts coming quicker again.

Feeling the prickling sensation of being close, Hakuryuu couldn’t resist the urge to touch himself. He slid his hand in the same motions as Judar’s thrusts until he couldn’t take it anymore. “Judar,” he breathed.

“M, me too.”

Judar came first by only a couple of moments, gasping as he finished and Hakuryuu came onto his stomach.

Hakuryuu watched as Judar ran a hand through his bangs, too spent to offer any more lewd comments, and left the room to clean himself off. Hakuryuu evened out his breathing before returning his robe to a semi-proper position.

His insides were warm in a way they never used to be, but was always happening now that he and Judar lived together. It didn’t have so much to do with being physically warm, but more with how Judar’s place in his life …warmed him.

When he thought back to how he felt about Judar as a teenager or even as far back as their shared childhood, where they were now seemed so… natural. Sure, Hakuryuu got annoyed at him sometimes. But at the end of the day Judar was the only person in the world that he could trust so deeply. The only person that cared about him enough to deal with him every day through everything that was wrong with him.

Judar walked back in and sat down at Hakuryuu’s side while he stifled a yawn. 

“Get up too early?” Hakuryuu teased.

“Worked too much,” Judar mumbled. He flopped to the side and grabbed a pillow to fluff up.

It was rare that he missed an opportunity to pick on Judar for his low stamina, but Hakuryuu was caught up in watching Judar’s tired eyes slowly open and close. The warm feeling crept up to his cheeks when Judar caught his staring and grinned.

“Hey, do I look really good right now?” Judar joked as he placed his pillow almost on top of Hakuryuu’s and took his hand. “I never catch you staring.”

“It’s just, uhh,” Hakuryuu stuttered. He never knew what to say when Judar was trying to embarrass him. He could say something to turn it on him, or… just be honest for once.

Hakuryuu looked back at Judar’s curious eyes, his face still burning. “I love you.”

Judar took a second to process it before his face turned red all at once and he smashed his face into his pillow. “Was I that good today?” He asked, voice muffled through the pillow.

“N, no. I mean yes. I mean… I was just thinking that I r, really love you.”

After a moment Judar raised his still-red face and sat up to look at Hakuryuu. He brushed Hakuryuu’s hair out of his face and kissed his lips softly. “You don’t have to force yourself to say it, you know.” He murmured. “I understand even if you don’t say it.”

Hakuryuu wrapped his arms around Judar’s waist loosely. “I want to say it. You don’t get to hear it as much as you should because I can never say it right, but,” he paused to wet his lips, “I really love you. More than anyone else in this world.”

“Hakuryuuuu… you’re embarrassing meee…”

“I know. I mean it, though. My health has been getting worse, and I -”

“Ah, come on. Even if you can’t move someday I’m not going anywhere. I keep telling you, it’s a lot harder to get rid of me than that.”

Hakuryuu smiled and rested his forehead on Judar’s shoulder. Judar always knew exactly what to say when he was feeling helpless. “I know. I’m stuck with you forever.”

“I, uh, really like you too. I love you.”

Hakuryuu lifted his head and met Judar’s eyes. “Let’s get married.”

“W… w, what…!” Judar ducked his head down and hid his face in Hakuryuu’s chest. “Haha… Seriously? Me?”

“Of course I mean you. We’re already living together. It wouldn’t change much, but… I want to marry you.”

“You really think I’m fit to be married?”

“Judar, don’t be like that. I’m the one that asked. And…” Hakuryuu brought his good arm to stroke Judar’s back as he thought. “It’s not like I’m the ideal partner either. I’m not healthy. My left eye is almost useless, I’m so covered in scars that I can’t go out without being stared at, and I only have my right arm now. Every year it feels like I have to rely on you more.”

“It doesn’t bother me,” Judar mumbled. “It never has.”

“So let’s get married.”

“M, marriage, huh…” Judar sat up to face Hakuryuu again. His face hadn’t gotten any less red but the shock had worn off enough for him to reply. 

Judar took a deep breath and met Hakuryuu’s eyes. “Sounds good. I can’t wait to see your family flip shit.”

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes. “That’s what you care about here? Typical Judar.”

“Hey! You’re the one who said not much would change.”

“Yeah. That’s true. Except that I’ll be able to call you my husband.”

“Ahhh!! How can you say that with a straight face?!” Judar covered his face with his hands. 

“To see you get all embarrassed about it, mostly,” Hakuryuu smiled as he tried to move Judar’s hands away so he could see the red dazed face he knew was behind it. Judar didn’t budge.

“I’m not going to be able to sleep now,” Judar confessed.

“Being late has never stopped you from being awake before,” Hakuryuu teased. “If you want, I can make a tart with those peaches.”

Judar grinned. “Yeah! Let’s have dessert.”

“You’re going to need to help, though.”

Normally Judar cringed at the thought of baking, but baking his favorite dessert with Hakuryuu didn’t sound too bad. He’d have to help out a lot more than he had been, but it was fine. Anything was fine as long as it was with Hakuryuu.

\---

It took a couple of weeks after Hakuryuu’s prosthetic legs were fitted for him to learn to walk properly again. He could walk normally enough that with longer pants it didn’t attract any more unwanted attention than his scars. If someone he didn’t know was going to notice him, Hakuryuu preferred it to be for a different reason than to stare with pity or morbid curiosity.

He bought engagement rings with Judar when he was still relying on the wheelchair part of the day outside. Now he mostly just used it when he was feeling lazy at home or at the final stretch of a long day. 

Judar was picky with his clothes and pickier with jewelry, but it had been exciting nonetheless. Eventually they settled on the familiar, easily recognizable type of matching engagement rings with a diamond set in the center, a few smaller diamonds circling the larger for a pretty contrast of gems and gold.

Traditionally, engagement rings were worn on the ring finger of the left hand. But it wasn’t personal enough on his prosthetic digits. He liked to feel the ring, cool in the morning and warm during the day. So he wore it on his right hand where he could feel it and everyone could see it.

It was a few hours into the Monday after Hakuryuu and Judar decided on rings that it got out at Hakuryuu’s workplace. One second he was reaching for an encyclopedia of plant diseases so he could treat their dying birch trees, and the next Alibaba was shouting incomprehensibly at him.

Once Alibaba finally stopped talking at that awful, earsplitting three-words-per-second pace, Hakuryuu dared to ask. “What was that for? You could have made me deaf.”

“Th, that ring!! Is it what I think it is?”

Hakuryuu held up his right hand so Alibaba could see the offending ring in greater detail. “How many types of rings do you know with a diamond set in the center? Honestly, Alibaba. It’s nothing to shout about.”

“It is too! How could you possibly be getting married!? You aren’t even dating anyone, right? Is it an arranged marriage? By your family? What’s she like? Do you know?”

Hakuryuu sighed. This was why he never brought it up before. He saw Aladdin and Morgiana’s curious faces peeking through the slightly ajar door. Yeah, this would be fun. At least the store wasn’t too busy.

“One question at a time,” Hakuryuu said as he flipped through the encyclopedia. It was a little hard to focus on reading while he was being interrogated, but he didn’t want to encourage too many invasive questions by giving them his full attention. Aladdin and Morgiana joined Alibaba to crowd around Hakuryuu.

“Congratulations,” Morgiana said with a sincere smile. Hakuryuu nodded his thanks. He’d already gotten as many congratulations as he could handle from his family. He was a little desensitized to them by now.

“What’s their name?” Aladdin asked.

Hakuryuu quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t you already know if you’re saying it like that?”

Aladdin grinned. “It’s Judar, isn’t it? I knew it!”

Hakuryuu nodded. He’d abandoned the thought of reading while he spoke - as much as he tried to hide it, the hopeless romantic inside of him was excited at the prospect of talking about his fiancé. Yeah, he was in it deep.

Alibaba balked. “Judar? That Judar? Your roommate?”

“Live-in boyfriend,” Hakuryuu corrected.

“S, seriously? Why did you say he was just your roommate then?”

“I didn’t. I said we live together and you assumed.”

“How long have you been dating?” Alibaba asked, tone somewhere between that of a concerned friend and a jealous coworker.

“Awhile. Since before I started working here.” 

“Seriously?” Alibaba groaned. “Here I thought we’d both been single this whole time!”

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes. Alibaba’s relationship problems were a long-time joke of their group and it was quite frankly insulting to be put on his level. “No way. I’ve been dating him for years.”

“Come to think of it,” Aladdin said, “what does Judar do for a living? He always seems to have free time.”

“He’s a priest.”

Hakuryuu was met with three blank stares. He sighed. Why did everyone react this way?

Alibaba was the first to break the silence. “Come on, you’ve got to be joking,” he laughed.

“I thought he was a model,” Aladdin added. “The lewd kind.”

Hakuryuu sighed. “He was adopted into it, and it pays well with minimal hours so he keeps doing it. And while I’m flattered you think he’s so beautiful that it’s natural for him to be a model, he takes his looks way too personally.”

“So then… have you…” Alibaba scratched his head nervously as he tried to figure out how to ask. He motioned with his hands, trying to angle the gesture away from Aladdin and Morgiana and failing kind of spectacularly.

“We live together, what do you think?” Hakuryuu said, annoyed, then realized he almost threw away a golden opportunity. “Sometimes twice a day. What, don’t make that face, surely you’ve done it at least once. Haven’t you, Alibaba?”

After comforting their unfortunate friend, Aladdin and Morgiana demanded to be invited to the wedding. The only thing that changed was that his co-workers became relentless teasers every time he brought Judar up.

In short, it went about the same as it had gone with his family sans Hakuei’s relieved tears. Everyone was happy for them and either expected it or didn’t take too long to accept it. Kouen in all his superiority claimed that he’d known for years while Kouha was shocked into disbelief. Kougyoku was happy to be able to call Judar family after all the time he was around anyway. Things calmed down quickly enough and it became old news in a matter of weeks.

It was nice. He was happier than he could remember ever being. Having a wedding would be a little overwhelming, and he was sure all the paperwork would blow Judar’s mind, but he was looking forward to it all.

Hakuryuu was used to everything in his life changing for the worse. Judar was the exception and the single constant in his life no matter how bad things got. Acknowledging Judar as the most important person in his life through marriage was only natural.

He was looking forward to the future, despite everything. It was hard to move and physically things were harder than they’d ever been but he was happy.


End file.
